1940-ish Snow Storm

SEMO Campus Snow 1940I was looking through scans from Mother’s college scrapbook when I saw what must have been the snowstorm of 1940 or thereabouts. This shows the terraces south and east of Academic Hall. Click on the photos to make them larger. I looked but didn’t see anybody sledding down the hill.

Albert or Leming Hall?

SEMO Campus Snow 1940This might be Leming Hall, but I’m going to let someone else make the call. A Missourian story said Albert Hall and  Leming Hall were almost identical in appearance and layout. Another picture in the scrapbook labeled Albert Hall, taken at a different time, showed steps leading up to screened-in porch.

A Frony photo showing a city crew putting cinders on Normal Avenue in front of Leming Hall shows a screened-in porch and no columns.

A photo from 1960 showing students moving out of Albert Hall before it was razed shows the columns and no porch. Maybe the screening was taken down in the winter, which would explain the difference.

Unknown location

SEMO Campus Snow 1940I don’t know where this photo was taken, but considering how much snow there is, I have to think it was taken around the SEMO campus. I can’t imagine Mother would have been able to make it back home to Advance given the condition of roads back then.

Albert Hall Dormitory

Albert Hall stairs from Mary Welch Steinhoff scrapbook c 1940

When I saw Fred Lynch’s blog with Frony’s pictures of some coeds on the steps of Albert Hall in 1960, I remembered seeing photos of those steps in Mother’s scrapbook.

I wasn’t sure that it WAS Albert Hall, but that’s the way Mother had the photo labeled, and the concrete detail on the right of the picture matches Frony’s shot.

Albert Hall demolished in 1960

Albert Hall stairs from Mary Welch Steinhoff scrapbook c 1940

Fred had another photo from 1960 showing the dorm being razed. (SEMO is great at flattening landmarks.) Fred noted that the dorm for women opened March 7, 1905. It was built by a private corporation, and acquired by the state in 1912. It served for 54 years.

Mother graduated from Advance High School in 1938, so these photos of her friends was taken after that.